Halo 2 and other future Bungie titles to make it past the Xbox to the Mac and/or PC?

Could be.

Thanks to HBO for the linkage.

From MBO comes word that Renaissance has made available a new plugin for both Myth: TFL and SB, called Dol Baran. It's available at the Mill. Thanks Zandervix.

IMG has a mention of Mac's upcoming Halo port, in an interview twixt Tuncer Deniz and Westlake's Glenda Adams. Not much, but its does clarify a few things.

Link snarfed from HBO.

Conner at Marius.net put an announcement that a new version of Mazzarin's Demise has been announced by Project Magma. Changes include 8 player support, more enemies, more powerful Light units-- over 100 changes in all.

MacGamer has put up an article by Corey Tamas on Myth: The Fallen Lords. The gist of it is that he never really understood the appeal of the game until he took a second look at it recently, and now he's a real fan:

I don't know what it was or why it was that this last kick at the can was the one that hooked me, but hook me it did. In one night I plowed through about 75% of the single player missions and finished the remaining 25% the next morning. The piece that I had been missing, I believe, was the understanding of tactical positioning. The point is rarely to throw more units at a problem (especially considering that you can't just have more units on a whim). Instead, the point is to learn how to position them to support each other and flank the enemy. Other games profess to be heavy tactics-oriented games that challenge the player to think strategically on the spot, but few bring those skills to bear the way that Myth: TFL does.

Better late than never. Gholsbane posted about the article at MBO.

PlayMyth.net is ready to beta test its Myth III software. If you're interested, makes sure you meet the requirements:

1. Time. You should have at least a couple of hours a day to play Myth 3 testing new builds.
2. Variety. You'll need to play solo and online (currently GameSpy, ultimately PlayMyth) to test changes made to multiplayer maps and just check for general game stability.
3. You must have existing issues with the game - meaning you can't play it for one reason or another because of operating system or hardware.

PlayMyth.net is desperately seeking Windows XP testers, but all platforms must be tested. If you're dedicated, send an e-mail telling them you're available.

GameSpy is running a four part article on Mac gaming and porting (one, two, three and four to come), starting with the roots of the Mac community in earlier Apple hardware, like the Apple IIe and vintage games like Wizardry (ah, the memories) through ports of Windows games like Doom, Mac originals like Myst, and up to the current process of porting games from OS 7/8/9.x to the very different underpinnings of OS X.

Halo gets a mention, even though it isn't yet out for the Mac:

Speaking of Halo, during that excruciating wait for DOOM, a small company in Chicago had plans of their own, plans that would include World Domination. But more on that later.

The later in this case comes in History Lesson Six of part 2, which is devoted to Bungie and mentions Pathways Into Darkness as well as the Marathon and Myth franchises.

Part 3 will focus on shareware, and Part 4 on porting houses. Halo may get another mention there if they mention Westlake Interactive, which they surely will.

In a rare news post, Oni Central has added new pieces of fan art and fan fiction. If you're still looking for an Oni fix, this is your lucky day.

The Myth 2 expansion, The Great War has been released (in a manner of speaking) in the beta 7 form, which is expected to be the closest to a final release the project will get. Of the 7 levels, 5 are complete-- two have some minor issues, but are included anyway. TGW is available from MythMaps. Thanks for word on this to Zandervix at MBO.

Incidentally, the Cartographers of Myth site, which used to be hosted by GameRats, also seems to have gone offline. In fact, it looks like GameRats has also gone offline.

The final version of GameRanger 3.0 is out, according to this story on MacCentral. This version is compatible with OS X and OS 8.6-9.2. GameRanger is a Macintosh gaming matchmaking service that supports Myth:TFL and Myth II, as well as many other popular games.

MBO's very own Zandervix put up a note that the Macintosh version of Myth 3 is due for an upgrade, to version 1.1. It fixes a few bugs and generally makes the game more stable. A PC upgrade is in the works for later. The news was originally posted at PlayMyth, and the patch itself is available at MythMaps and will be at The Mill.

David Candyman Candland of Bungie has posted to Bungie.net that Team Unpfhorgiven has released a demo of their much anticipated Marathon TC for Unreal Tournament, Marathon: Resurrection. From the release notes of M:R 1.2:

This release is not a simple patch, it is a complete install and as such can be installed by itself over a fresh Unreal Tournament 4.3.6 install or over a previous version of Marathon:Resurrection.

Once installed, the single player experience is meant to be a loosely based replica of the original Marathon Demo by Bungie. Some things that we included were not part of the original demo, and a few small things have been omitted, but otherwise this release stays true to the original.

This new version includes all three single player levels from the original Marathon Demo, including terminals and game saving/loading.

We've mirrored the Marathon: Resurrection Demo.

Aquaduct, the superior Xbox tunneling app for Mac OS X, has been updated to beta 3 today. The changes since beta 2 include:

• Xbox detection column graphics added.
• Working pings.
• Client/server code overhauled.
• DING button added.
• GUI cleaned up.
• Help Files!
• Numerous small stability enhancements and other minor changes.

Looks to be a good step forward for the software. Pick up beta 3 and make sure you have GameRanger so you can find other people to play with.

Marius Net will be celebrating one year of operation this Friday. Bungie.net suggests (while Clan Plaid confirms) that there will be prizes given away. If you hope to catch a prize, then be on Marius Net at 12:00 PM, 3:00 PM, 6:00 PM, 9:00 PM, and/or midnight for your chance.

MBO also put up notice that Andrew Meggs of Antennahead has put up a screenshot of Vengeance, the Myth 3 editor, running on a Mac (under OS 9, by the look of it) up at his website for Antennahead Industries. It's captioned by the single word.. soon .